The Educationist

For some strange reasons, I was not getting sleep during those days. All night I used to just lie on the bed, closing the eyes, but not sleeping. Sometimes I used to get up from the bed and walk here and there inside the home. As this continued day by day, I started looking very tired and dull during the day time, and people around me started commenting that I look dull and also started inquiring whether I am not well. I tried many things to get sleep. First I started watching TV. That was the time of IPLs. After 20 years I started watching cricket again in my life, just to kill time. On the first day when I switched on TV to watch cricket, it was a person called "Shikar Dawan" who was batting in a wonderful way. Then I moved on to watching movies, cartoons and what not. But the end was not reached. Even after watching TV till 4 am or 5 am in the morning I was not getting sleep, but only short naps for an hour or so.

 Then I moved on to do some physical work - like cleaning home, washing clothes, cooking. All these tasks made me more tired, but I was nowhere near my goal. I even tried going for a walk and jog. Nothing helped.
During that time, I happened to travel in Pallavan Express from Trichy to Chennai in 3rd AC coach. I think that was my first trip in the AC coach of Pallavan Express. The train was at 6:30 in the morning. As usual, after a sleepless night, I reached the station on time and had just enough time to get into the train. I was just gazing through the window when a person called me from behind  "Sir, is that your seat...".

I turned back and saw a calm and quiet person, should be in the late forties or early fifties, very neatly dressed, with a beautiful smile. His face had a divine charm.
"No, sorry, this is not my seat...", I said as window seat was not mine.
He replied "Sir, it is my seat, but if you want, you can continue to be there and I will take your seat"
Normally, like many, I prefer to have the window seat, but upon seeing his face, I said "No, thank you..." and moved to my seat.
He occupied his seat and was continuously getting phone calls, in which he was talking about some churches and brothers in those churches. I thought he himself could be one such brother.


As the train started, he asked whether I am into business. This is the second time I am encountering this question. First time I encountered this question was again when I was traveling in the AC coach of Rockfort express, which made me to assume that, it is mostly the businessmen, who travel in the AC coaches.
I replied "No, I am not into business..."
"Then... you are..." he asked.
"I am into software... I develop software..."
"Oh Ok..."
"To Chennai...", he enquired
"Yes...", I replied.

Then I got into some deep thoughts. But, I thought that I should ask him what he is doing, though normally I never ask anyone any such questions.
"And you..."
"I am an educationist...", he replied.
I didn't know exactly what he was meaning by that. I thought he should be a lecturer or a professor in some college.
"In which college Sir...", I asked. I started addressing him as "Sir" in somewhat a respectful way now.
"Not college... school... I am headmaster of (he said some school's name, which I forgot now) in Royapettah."
It sounded to be a famous school in that area. Having faced a lot of difficulty in putting my dear little friend Dhanu into school, some 2 years ago, I thought I should get to know more about him and interact well with him, so that in future, I can put my cute little friend Deepu into some good school, with his recommendation. But at the same time, I was so doubtful whether I can do that in the short train journey of 5 hours.
"Nowadays almost all are into software..." he remarked.
"Yes Sir... most of the service companies has established processes, and now software can be developed, even without any knowledge of data structures or algorithms..."
He seemed to have got more interested into it and started asking me more and more questions and I tried to answer as much as I could.
Finally he remarked... "Whatever it is... it is indeed a good field, that provides jobs to many and almost eradicated the unemployment, which was in its peak in the 90s..."
"What you do in your school sir... I mean what are your day to day activities in school..." I asked him.
He seemed to have got interested in this question and started answering in an elaborate way.

"Morning I go to school about 8:30, attend the prayer and then around 10:00 will go for rounds all around the school..." and then he went on to explain his day to day activities.
"One of my main activity is to constantly watch the mood and enthusiasm of the teachers and whenever I find that they are not enthusiastic or happy, its my duty to help them in getting their worries resolved and bring them back to normal... Because if they are not happy, they cannot do their job well... and it will directly affect the students..."

He continued "One day while on the rounds, I found the one teacher had a very sad face... It was like as if it is written in his face that he is having a miserable life..."
He went on... "I asked him what his problem is... He immediately started crying, unmindful of the students in front of him... I took him aside and asked him again what his problem is..."
"From what he said, I understood that his personal life is miserable. He is married for about 10 years... has 2 kids... and now have almost come to the stage that he cannot live with his wife anymore, who was a teacher in another school... and the only way to spend the rest of his is to get separated from her... I found that day by day, he was having a miserable and painful life in home... In that situation, definitely he cannot do a good job in school..."
He added... "By this time, we both started walking and came to the main gate of the school... The gate was locked... There was a road in front of the school's gate and at the other end of the road, there was a ditch in which dirty water was running... We both saw a man, wearing dirty clothes-that looked as if it was never washed, his hair-looked as if it was never combed... He was holding a small stick in his hand and was standing on the shore of the ditch and was playing by hitting the stick on that running water..."
He went on... "I asked the teacher, do you know why he is so happy now... The teacher looked at my face, confused... He is happy because he had a good meal in the morning... and he is celebrating it by playing in that dirty water... though he knows very well that his next meal is not guaranteed..."
"But see... In your case, you both are working as respectful teachers, and the meal for you and your family is guaranteed for the next thirty years... But still you don't know how to celebrate it... And instead you are worrying about it..."
"She is your wife... Who else will fight with you.... She bore your 2 kids... Go home right now, ask her also to come home... talk to her... tell her that you want to celebrate your life day-by-day, with her..."
"He left the school immediately and came to school after 2 days and this time he was happy... I never asked him what happened in home, but I was sure that he will be a good teacher after that, celebrating his life in school too..."

The educationist went on and on. After a long time, I was hearing a monotonous speech, more or less a lecture... I started dozing... as I used to do on hearing the lectures in college and I was finding it tough to keep myself awake ...

But I tried my best to keep myself awake, just to listen to what he said.

 He went on... "See the Russia... most of the time it is cold there... covered everywhere with snow... But see India... where we have sun almost all the days..."

I was wondering why he is comparing India with Russia, when generally India is compared with the US these days. I assumed that he should belong to the previous generation. As far as I know during the British rule, India was compared with Britan, even Gandhi went there for his higher studies... But I am not sure whether Gandhi attempted and cleared GRE or TOFFEL to reach there. And for a couple of years after independance, India was compared with Russia... and in the recent days India is compared with America.I guess the "Sir" should have been an child or young boy during the days of comparison with Russia, as one tends to remember their childhood days for the rest of their life.

He continued "There people cannot work on the field(probably he is referring to agriculture). But see our gifted climate, where we can work round the year... But how we waste our time and energy on useless things, fighting with each other..."

After that I didn't know when I slept. I had a sound sleep, after a long time. I dint know for how long he kept talking. But when I woke up, I found that he was also asleep. I also observed that in every station, he got down from the coach, and met his old students in the platform. Upon knowing that he was traveling in this train, many of his old students had come to the station in that odd hour to meet their teacher. He should be a famous teacher, and should be a role model for many, I thought.


As the train entered Egmore station, we got ready to get down.
I thanked him, for which he returned a beautiful smile, and came out of the station. He was received by a couple of people at the platform. I started walking towards the bus stop to take a bus to home.

After that I never had a sleepless night, probably because I have decided to celebrate my life, day-by-day... Thank You Sir...

- Pavala.

Chennai Express in Vijay Mall.

When I entered the movie hall I observed that the screen was just a bit bigger than our TV screen. I was disappointed, as I am person who likes to watch movies on bigger screens. Also our seats were in the second row, and thus I almost felt that I was watching the movie in our home. This was our first movie in the new Trichy’s Vijay Mall, the first ever shopping mall of Trichy. By the way, the mall has a nice name J. The shopping mall in Nagerkoil had an even nicer name J.

After a long time, went for the movie “Chennai Express” to theater, with family. It was a Hindi movie taken in  Tamil(pun intended). Almost all the characters spoke Tamil including Sharukh, who spoke a statement in Tamil at the end, which majority of the Tamil speaking population couldn’t  understand. Will come to that later. I am sure the Hindi speaking people would have had some difficulty in understanding the story.  

In the initial scenes, the background sceneries were more beautiful than Deepika Padukone. Or may be, with time, I have learnt to see the beauty beyond women J.  But, nowhere in Tamil Nadu one could see such a place. Later got to know that it is some place near Goa. People watching the movie from North India would assume that everyone one in Tamil Nadu will be having a sickle in hand, as when Sharukh gets down from the train, he was welcomed by a huge crowd, where everyone had a sickle in one or both the hands.

“Thangabali”, a name which I am sure, no one will be having in Tamil Nadu. Also Mr. Thangabali, is a fair, tall, well-built person, who definitely should have born somewhere in the temperate zone.

Most of the Tamil Guys will remain un-married if we were asked to lift the girl through those many steps to the top of the mountain, because…(I don’t want to complete this statement here, but I can share the complete statement over email, on request J).

The Perumal kovil Poojari in having Pattai all through his body. Mohan Ram, the actor whole played the Poojari role, would have hit his head against a pillar upon watching this scene in the movie.

Priyamani’s dance for “1234 song” was awesome. One of my short term goal is to learn her steps. All through the movie I tried to translate the hindi statements to my friend, who objected to it saying “I can understand, no need to translate”. With the flow and with many characters speaking Tamil, she was able to understand except when Sharukh Khan said “Ippdi oru appan iru-paaa-naa…” towards the end of the movie. He repeated it again, even then many couldn’t understand. I understood it at the second time. At this time my friend asked “What did he tell???”. I translated Sharukh’s Tamil to our Tamil.

The way Deepika calls “Aaapaa” was sweet and wonderful. We have a person in our family who pronounces “Appa” in almost the same way, almost having a similar name to hers. J.   

They call it a tribute to Rajini, but sing and dance about lungi. Dear Sharukh, Rajni’s dancing style is unique and not the regular lungi dapankuthu. And by the way, we Tamils cannot claim ownership over lungi. Lungi belongs to one of our neighboring state, the "Land of Lungi", but they call it as "God's own country". The Chetans will murichu our chundu, if we claim ownership over lungi.

But at the end I have to agree that it was good watch and had a good time with family. 

Nagercoil Trip April 2013 - Tamil New Year & "Kai-Neettam"

This year our Tamil New Year started in my in-laws place - Nagerkoil. Before going into those details, let me tell about my encounters with this city. Nagerkoil is a small(but growing) city in the southmost part of Tamil Nadu, just above Kanniyakumari(19 kilometers from Kanniyakumari). I have first heard the name of this city during my childhood from our Shanmugam Mama, my Dad's friend. Mams's native was Nagercoil. Whenever Mama visits our home, we hear the word "Nagerkoil" atleast 10 times.

Way back in 2003, I was travelling by train to Trivandrum, for joining in my first company. I was sleeping in the side-lower birth. Around 1:30 in the night, when the train was passing across Nagerkoil Junction. I was disturbed from my sleep by people getting ready to get down at Nagerkoil and at that time I peeped out of the window. I saw a couple of big white colored fans rotating. Actually they were power generating windmills. At that time (and even now) I had a special interest over the city, as it was my friend's native and I kept awake and kept gazing out through the window till the train crossed Nagerkoil.

While returning from Trivandrum - this time by bus - it was raining heavily. I kept looking through the window when the bus was crossing Nagerkoil. While at Trivandrum, I liked the city felt that I should settle down in such a small, calm and beautiful city. Nagerkoil was also close to that - a small & calm city. But nowadays its gradually changing. 

Now, lets come back to our Tamil New Year celebrations. The specialty of Tamil New Year in Nagerkoil is - "Kai-Neettam"(in Tamil this means "extending the hand"), a custom in while elders give money to the younger generations and bless them. So, a nice custom... We get blessings & money too. On April 14th, as usual I woke up around 9:00 AM, when my Sister-in-law gave "Kai-Neettam" to my little friends and blessed them. Then my Parents-in-law gave "Kai-Neettams" to all of us. And the "Kai-Neettams" continued. Around the same time I started getting New Year wishes over phone from parents and sisters. Thus we got a considerable amount in hand and I thought why dont such a function come every month :-).

Then we all got ready and went to the nearby Krishnankoil Temple. I was surprised to find that my friend had never been there. It was a nice temple. We prayed to God peacefully. These days our Deepu kutty starts praying by folding his hands whenever he sees God.

Overall it was a happy day and we all had a good time.

First Long Drive from Chennai to Trichy.

Unexpectedly I got an opportunity to drive from Chennai to Trichy, with family - My friend, little friends, Mama and Athai. A couple of days before the actual journey when I drove around the city, I found it a bit difficult to drive, due to the heavy traffic and I started feeling tired after every trip. I also started getting news from native about en-queries like whether I have prior experience, whether I will manage, whether I know the intricacies of driving for more than 4 hours, etc. But I have to agree that these queries at one point of time, made me a little frightened, and for a moment thought about getting a driver for driving from Chennai to Trichy.

But with blind guts, but believing my will power, I declared to my friend "Mun vaicha kaala pin vaikka matten..."(Will not withdraw my decision for any reason...). She was also happy to know my firm decision to drive. Two days before the actual journey, I called up my friend Aravind, who frequently drives from Chennai to Karur to know about the general guidelines to be followed and precautions to be taken. The main thing he pointed to me was to take a 5 minutes break after every 1 hour. Earlier I was planning to take a 5-minutes break after every 1.5 hours. He also added that we can drive continuously without taking any break, but after reaching the destination we will start feeling very tired. Also he advised not to eat heavily before or during the journey, as we may fall asleep if we do so. But later, I forgot this point, and as usual had a heavy breakfast on the way during the journey :-), more about it later.

On the day before the journey I wanted to simulate the actual scenario (as one could expect from a software engineer, by profession :-)...). We had decided to start from home at 4:30 early in the morning. So on the previous day I woke up at 4:30 to check if I am able to be alert and awake. All else were sleeping in home, so, after taking bath, I took a Sujatha's novel and started reading it. After 40 minutes, I started feeling so tired and sleepy that I was not able to be awake any more. It could be due to the novel I read, since reading requires more effort. So, around 5:30 I started sleeping. When I woke up at around 7:30, I declared that the time of journey is postponed to 6:00 am, since the simulation failed. But my friend told that I will not sleep while driving since all will be around and will be talking to each-other. But still to be on the safer side, I told that lets target for 5:30, so that we can start at least by 6:00 am.

The previous night, while going to bed, I told my friend to wake me as the last person and that too after everyone is ready. But I woke up as the first person around 4:45 in the morning, probably due to anxiety. I went out and wiped the car once will a soft cloth. Then took bath, and by this time all are ready. I had earlier filled a pen drive will our favorite songs for listening on the way. Then after getting ready, I brought the car near the main door and I and Mama started keeping the luggage inside the dicky. Then we locked the home and we all boarded. Then, I kept the 4 limes, one each under each wheel, and lit a camphor placing it on top of a coconut and rotated it thrice to the left and thrice to the right, standing in front of the car and facing the car. Then, I broke the coconut on the road. To our surprise it broke exactly into 2 halves.

I occupied the driver's seat, put on the belt, prayed to God and started driving. Halted in-front of the nearby Vinayaka temple to pray for a couple of seconds and the journey started. I took all the short-cuts, until we came out the city to Tambaram. My friend and little friends were singing and happy. Till that time I was driving at 50 to 60 kmph. After hitting the highway at Gooduvanchery, I raised to 80 and drove for another half an hour. After crossing the SRM university, it was time for halt. I stopped under a tree on the main road and took a small break.

Then started again and continued to drive at 80 to 90 kmpl for the next one hour. By this time it was time for breakfast, and we stopped on a roadside motel for breakfast. It was a small one and mostly lorry drivers were having breakfast there. Since its our first trip, we didnt know which motel to take, so we selected this one randomly. But the people there were kind and the service was good. As it was around 9:00 am, the items were getting over one by one and so we got only idlis, poori with sambhar(masala over). I had 4 idlis and 2 poori's, forgetting Aravind's advice to eat less during the journey. The breakfast was good and we had a good time there. I called up Appa and informed our position. He asked the speed at which I am driving. I told him that its around 80 to 100 kmph. Based on that it seems that they assumed that we will reach home around 2:00 pm. Even my friend came to the conclusion that we will be reaching home around 1:00 pm. But the end, everyone's calculation failed.

At a toll plaza

 By now I got used to the highway driving and raised the speed to see if I am able to control. I raised up to 120, and kept driving between 100 to 120 kmph. Was able to control the car comfortably at that speed. Then I further raised to 135 and then to 140 kmph. At this speed, we were passing ahead of all the vehicles. At this speed I noticed that while changing from one lane to another, the vehicle was dragging a bit forward and then moving the other lane, and also its not moving to the other lane at the point that I had assumed, but it was happening after that. All these were clear indications that the vehicle is not under our control, and in case of emergency, I may not be able to control the vehicle properly. So, finally decided to stick to the safe controllable speed of 110 to 120 kmpl. Rest of the journey continued at this speed and we reached home at 12:00 noon, to everyone's surprise. We halted twice after this, once for fuelling and once for a short break of 5 minutes, where we clicked pictures.

I honked from outside on reaching home, but no one came out. After repeated honking, Mom and sister came and they were surprised to see us at that time. Mom said that she expected us around 2:00 pm and sister was expecting us around 4:00 pm :-).

That concluded that my long drive in car from Chennai and Trichy. From now on no one can ask me whether I have long driving experience or whether I know the intricacies of long driving. Yes, somehow I got that first time experience :-).

- Pavala.

Some habits wont die...

This is in response to Shen's post with the same topic which can be read here - Some habits wont die.
Each one of us will have many such habits, I believe. Let me start with my school days. When I switched from pencil to pen in my fourth standard, I had the habit of always carrying the pen in hand. Even while playing it used to be in my hand. This continued for more than 6 months, after which it stopped, and I do not remember how. In those days, I also had the habit of counting the number of items in my bag once in every period, so as to make sure that I didnt miss anything till that time.

In my high school, while going to school, I got into the habit of praying to all the Gods and temples - irrespective of the religion (even now I believe that all Gods are one and the same, and that they exhibit polymorphism :-)...) - on the road, just by turning towards that temple and having a quick prayer. Also in my high school days, I had the habit of having a quick prayer to God once in every one hour and this habit lasted for around 3 years and I do not remember how it dis-appeared.

Wiping any item(electronic & non-electronic) regularly and keeping them in show-room condition till its last day, is a habit that continues till this day. In the initial days of my career, I had a small piece of cloth in my bag, with which I used to wipe the monitor of the system and then start my work. Despite my serious attempts, these days, my little friends quickly push any item out of the show-room condition.

While I was in my eighth standard, one day on seeing me a bit dull, my dad asked me go around the place in cycle, to get refreshed. That started the habit what I call as "rounds" - going around the places without stopping and without any target or agenda. Now bike & car have replaced the cycle, but still the habit of "rounds" continues and it is more fun when my friend and little friends accompany.

While at college, during the first semester, I found that many in hostel were going to the nearby temple on the previous evening of the exam. I also went with one of my hostel mate, and thus got into the habit of going to temple before the exams.

At one point in my life, I got so depressed and started searching for the meaning of my life and the reason for my existence. I started roaming here and there. During that time, one day I went to Srirangam and visited the God Renganatha, where I felt complete calmness and peacefulness in my mind, which started the habit of visiting Srirangam whenever I get a chance. And everytime I get the same feeling and even now when I get depressed I think of him in mind and it goes away. Also when I saw him in the Trivandrum Padmanabhaswamy temple, I got the same feeling.

Recently my friend says that I use more of the Madras slang when I speak and that it doesnt look(or sound???) nice. I wantedly learnt that slang, and think more of it got into my vocabulary. And the same is the reason that I avoid talking in Tamil in office with colleagues and especially with my bosses.

I had the habit of using ink pens for my regular work too. Recently I moved to ball pens. Still thinking about switching back to ink pens. Let me see.

There are many more in the list, some of them known only to my friend, and some only to my close friends, and some only to me, which cannot be dis-closed here :-).

And thank you Shen for the open invitation.

Welcome 2013...

Wishing all my readers a very happy & prosperous new year... Hoping to write lots & lots from this year...
- Pavala.